A hidden church.

This church, so well hidden, dates from 1855 and is in a perfect Neo-Gothic style. Some modern buildings have later separated the entrance from the street. We are just in front of the “Le Bon Marché” department store (see previous post here).

The church is called Saint Ignace. It’s a Jesuit church dedicated to Saint Ignace, Ignatius de Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit movement. I already talked about the fact that Ignatius together with some friends decided about the creation of the “Society of Jesus” in 1534 in a little chapel on the slopes of Montmartre (see previous post here). Maybe we should remember that the present Pope is a Jesuit.

The church has a number of very nicely decorated chapels dedicated to different saints, one of course to Ignatius himself, see top picture.

The immediate neighbour to the church is a Jesuit university-level faculty, opened in 1974, today open to men and women, lay and religious.  

Gloomy sky, but...

Yes, we have had some grey days…, but Paris is still there.

I realised that, on this photo, you can see not only the Sacré Cœur, but also the top of the Opera Garnier, Napoleon on Place Vendôme… and, in the very front, the statue of Thomas Jefferson.

I take the opportunity to wish you a Happy New Year !

A last one in 2019...

Almost end of the year... time to wish you all the best for 2020! Here are some of my photos, illustrating my blog-posts during 2019, most of them from Paris, but a few from Portugal, Sweden... . I hope to continue my blog also next year, but probably in a rather slow pace.  

Exhibitions

In general, I don’t take pictures from different official art exhibitions, even if this is more and more tolerated, allowed. Here are however a few samples from exhibitions I have recently visited: Da Vinci (Louvre)…

… El Greco (Grand Palais)…

… and Toulouse-Lautrec (Grand Palais). 

I have visited a few more – without photos. Right now you can for example see Bacon (Centre Pompidou), Degas (Musée d’Orsay), Le Douanier Rousseau (Musée Maillol), Mondrian (Musée Marmottan Monet), Soulages (Centre Pompidou and Louvre)…

A little problem is the present local transport strike. Most of the metro lines are closed, but there are a number of buses around… and you can of course bike, walk... 

Christmas show windows again, again, again...

As each year since I started this blog, it’s time to have a look at the Christmas show windows, concentrating on the department stores the Printemps and the Galeries Lafayette.

If you wish you can look back on 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

… and there is of course the tree under the fantastic glass cupola of the Galeries Lafayette, different each year.

The flowers we can see in the tree can be recognised in a large part of the Galeries Lafayette show window decorations.

A few of the windows are just showing “things to buy”, of course beautifully presented.

This year you will find all kinds of animals in the Printemps windows…

… whereas at the Galeries Lafaytte there is a concentration on bees.